Lansing, MI : 5-vehicle crash on southbound Beacon Blvd on Wednesday, 28th September 2016

A multi-vehicle crash shut down one lane of southbound Beacon Boulevard in Grand Haven late Wednesday afternoon.The crash was reported at about 5:20 p.m., with five vehicles involved. The initial report said 10 vehicles were involved in the pileup.

The crash happened in front of the Best Western motel. A light pole was sheered from its base and landed on one of the vehicles in the crash.

One person was checked for minor injuries, but was not transported to a hospital.

Traffic was reduced to one lane as the damaged vehicles were removed from the scene. Tow truck operators had to back their flatbed vehicles together and lift the platforms to separate two of the cars.

Elliot Rymal of Grand Haven was at the back of a line of cars stopped for a red light in front of McDonald’s when he noticed a car coming behind him wasn’t slowing down. Rymal said the woman’s Ford Taurus station wagon glanced off his Volkswagen Passat and bounced up into the median before striking and pulling off the tire of a Saturn Vue in front of him.

The Vue rear-ended a Honda CRV driven by Craig VanHekken.

“All of a sudden, I see her coming sideways alongside me,” VanHekken said. “She hit the pole. All of a sudden, there was this huge noise.”

VanHekken said it felt like slow motion as the metal structure fell onto his windshield and hood. Fortunately, he was not injured.

Bystanders lifted the pole off his car and moved it into the median.

VanHekken said after the car went around him, it plowed into the back of a stake truck.

“It’s amazing how far she went,” Rymal said.

The driver of the Taurus said one of her sandals had slipped off while she was driving. She looked down to put it back on her foot and looked up just before her car hit the first vehicle.

No more information was available at the time. The crash remains under investigation.

Source :
5-vehicle crash on southbound Beacon Blvd